Welcome To Dolls Den, porcelain dolls supplies and distributer for Victoria and Tasmania of Seeleys Products and Francheville Brushes.

How it all started....
Hi, my name is Effie Iliopoulos; I am the owner and teacher of Dolls Den.

I started doll making 1989 and from the first doll I was hooked. At this point in my life I had made stuffed toys, outfit for my children, cross stitch and many large tapestries. Dollmaking was a great hobby because there were many things that I could do ie. Costuming, millinery, shoe making and many other crafts.

After 6 months of dollmaking my husband was transferred to New York, Japan and then Hong Kong. In every country dollmaking made it easy for me to meet new friends. I started teaching in New York and I have now been teaching for 15years.

In 2001 I purchased Jonan Ceramics in Bayswater and moved it to Warrandyte. The business incorporates distributorship for Seeley’s Ceramics in New York and Francheville Brushes. We supply studios with doll related products throughout Victoria and Tasmania. It was a lot of work in the beginning but now it is smooth sailing.

My inspiration for my dolls comes from different character ie. Films, fairytales, ethnic pictures mainly from National Geographic books. It is usually the costume that inspires me the most. There are certain dolls that I like to paint again and again, so there is always some new charactor to make.

I travel to the USA and Germany for Doll Artisan Guild conventions every year and I enjoy that very much. Every couple of years my family comes with me. I used to enter my dolls into competition and have won many rosettes but now that I am an instructor for the Doll Artisan Guild I can not compete. I loved to compete because I made a very special doll twice a year, put a lot of effort into the costume and the painting. You could always tell if your doll would do well because the ones that almost talked to you seemed to talk to others also.

Dolls are my passion and running a Porcelain Doll shop is the best thing that I could be doing. Going to work each day is a pleasure.

I love to teach people dollmaking and I hope my students get as much satisfaction as I do from creating something unique. I started my teachers training in New York with the Doll Artisan Guild and loved every seminar that I attended. Now I have reached the top of the ladder by receiving my “Triple Crown of Dollmaking”. In the shop we teach seminars for the Doll Artisan Guild school of dollmaking. The seminars are designed for beginners to advanced. They usually run for 3 days over the weekend and in this time they complete 2-3 dolls depending on the seminar. Every year we have different instructor come in from instate and overseas. I feel it is important for a student to get as much exposure from different teachers because they will learn different techniques which will help the student to develop their own style. The class room is not only for learning dollmaking but it also for developing friendships.